Congress arranges flights, buses to curb poaching of candidates in Telangana

The Congress party stalwarts sequestered its candidates in a five-star hotel and asked DK Shivakumar to spearhead the camp in Telangana to prevent any form of poaching.

Hyderabad:Congress, which is racing towards a clear majority in the Telangana Assembly polls, has arranged two special flights, four helicopters and two buses to move its candidates to Karnataka. Already, it has appointed one special observer each to keep a tight vigil on its contesting candidates in the State amidst reports of possible poaching by rival parties.

On Saturday, sources said that the party had planned to protect its candidates from poaching. The Congress high command isolated candidates in a five-star hotel and sent DK Shivakumar, the Deputy Chief Minister (CM) of Karnataka to Hyderabad to head the camp and prevent attempts by other parties to snoop on them.

According to reports, Shivakumar extended his support towards the party members in Telangana as the latter had helped him during the Karnataka elections. As per reports, Shivakumar negated any need to camp the Telangana Congress MLAs in a secure place in Karnataka because he believed in their sheer victory but also assured his readiness to provide facilities if the need arises.

While most exit poll surveys predicted that the Congress would bring an end to the nine-year rule of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) by winning 60 seats in the 119-member assembly, a few surveys indicated a hung House, meaning no party would have a clear majority.

BRS refutes poaching allegations: MP K Keshava Rao from the BRS denounced Shivakumar's claims, saying there is no need for his party to steal Congress MLAs as they are sure to get a resounding majority by themselves. He also denied the authenticity of exit polls and termed them as 'unreliable'. He repeatedly said that he had complete faith that the party return to power for a third term.

Poaching history:In 2014, the BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS) crossed the absolute majority mark by winning 63 seats. However, things took an ugly turn when KCR poached 12 MLAs from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), eight from the Congress, three from the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), two from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), one from the Communist Party of India (CPI), and two independent candidates in a matter of few months. In the following election in 2018, the BRS returned to power for its second term, by winning 88 out of 119 seats. Yet, they left no stone unturned in luring and poaching 12 out of 19 Congress MLAs, and two TDP MLAs and Independents each.